Modern integrated circuits (ICs) are enormously complicated. Some modern ICs have more than a billion transistors, which each have feature sizes on the order of 10 nm and which can each turn off and on at more than a billion times per second. Because of the complexity of modern IC design, as well as market pressure to rapidly churn out these designs, electronic design automation (EDA) tools are widely used in the IC design process. In short, these EDA tool are computer aided design tools that simulate the IC at various levels of abstraction under the direction of an IC designer. For example, the IC can be initially designed at a general functional level according to a functional design specification, and then can be later simulated and verified at a layout level to help make sure the final IC, as actually manufactured, will provide desired functionality.